Steam Tea House

Sip down! Made a huge mug of sweet-tart iced tea. The first sip was a surprise though, since I forgot which tea I had decided to ice (yeah..). I was expecting sweet berries but got sour grapefruit. Haha.

I added some honey and stirred it into the hot tea before I finished pouring it over ice. Much better.

I’m weird and prefer my blacks steeped at a lower temperature, for a longer time. Partly because I’m too impatient to wait for my cup to cool enough for me to drink, but also because a lower temperature lets me make a stronger cup with less astringency.

I will admit, I’m not usually one to reach for a straight Assam. I prefer Ceylon, so if I’m wanting a single-source I usually grab a Ceylon, but honestly, most of my straight blacks are blends (Irish Breakfast generally, which is funny since it’s largely an Assam blend, yet I never reach for a straight Assam!) or Lapsang Souchongs.

I got a sample of this from OMGsrsly back when we had our Victoria swap and tea crawl. I’ve been terrible at not going through all my goodies, partly due to not having the best access to my collection/kettle due to renos on the house (specifically my room/the stairs next to my door, blocking my only path into my room), so I’m finally catching up, bit by bit.

The leaf smells a bit malty, and somewhat stronger than the steeped liquor. The liquor is a really lovely deep red, richer in colour than my usual go-to Ceylon from Silk Road. But the liquor itself is actually quite mild. The richness is more of an aftertaste vs a kick in the teeth, which while extremely pleasant, is VERY different than my usual black picks.

I was expecting a bit more “oomph”, going by the scent of the leaf and the colour of the liquor, but I’m pleasantly surprised! It’s extremely smooth, despite the longish steep, rich, comforting, but not so bold that it leaves your mouth feeling dry.

I’ve been munching on banana chips while typing this, and the combination of flavours makes me feel like I’m eating banana bread! So decadent!

I think that after this, I’m going to need to give Assams more of a chance, and let my Ceylon addiction simmer down a bit. This turned out to be nothing like what I was expecting, and I’m pretty darn happy!

This is a lot more floral than the other cherry green I’ve had in the past, but that’s not surprising since there are rose petals in this blend.

The liquor smells like sour cherry blasters. The flavour reminds me of those same cherry blasters, coupled with Turkish Delights (it’s the rose). It’s a very, refreshing dessert-like cup that I enjoyed most when it naturally cooled. If I ever crave cherry blasters without wanting all that extra sugar I’ll probably reach for this.

Thanks, OMGsrsly! I only have one Steam Tea packet left to try from you.

I made this one as a Hong Kong style milk tea earlier this evening. Om nom nom! I steeped it extra strong, poured it over a teaspoon of sweetened condensed milk (I have some in my fridge since DavidsTea posted that recipe and I decided I had to try it. Now I have to use it up!), then added ice.

This tea is EXCELLENT served this way. The sweetness, maple and milk all blend together, and oh, I wanted more. But I’m not having any more caffeine tonight, so I have to wait till tomorrow. Hopefully it’s nice and hot and sunny. I might make a big jar of this and take it to the park and read on the grass while sipping tea.

I’ve oversteeped this more times than I can count and it still manages to taste mellow and smooth with the milk. I wouldn’t call it flat, per say; prairie land has a crazy amount of texture and dips if you look close enough.

I wish I could say what kind of coconut this reminded me of or what base I think it has. Unfortunately, I chugged away six big mugs-worth of this tea without ever giving it the attention it deserved. And now it’s gone.

I enjoyed the short time I had with this tea and my empty mug smells of coconut macaroons- all good things, I think! Thanks OMGsrsly. :)

The lavender is strong with this one.

So strong that it’s actually giving the bergamot a run for it’s money. I’d like to think that lavender and bergamot are partners in crime here, as they seem to be working well together, but the lavender definitely has the upper.. er.. petal here.

This tastes the best lukewarm- it prevents lavender from getting too cocky and blundering up the situation. Milk also keeps everyone together.

Silliness aside, this is actually a nice Earl Grey and the bergamot dosage is at a level I can handle. The lavender is extreme, and while I appreciate the hefty flower punch and its lingering sensations it’s not for everyone. I like the thin, twiggy loose leaves here too.

Thanks, OMGsrsly, for this sample and introducing me to Steam!

Edit: Just to get a couple other perspectives on this, my mom said this was delicious and my dad thought it tasted like dishwasher soap. Definitely not everyone’s cup of tea.

Delicious with a tonne of honey and a little this morning. I haven’t had a plain black tea in a while, and need to remember to make them in the mornings!

This one also works well as a DavidsTea Tea Pop! Just FYI.

I was SO thirsty tonight. A caramel rooibos tea while out, then 32 oz of iced teas when I got home. Well. Time to sleep now. Hope I don’t have to get up too often…

Oh, this is so so so so good. The chocolate essence is deep dark 90% chocolate flavour. There isn’t so much chicory in here that it’s ridiculously bitter like chicory dickory dock (although that might be the vanilla).

I’ve been enjoying this heated on the stove top in 50/50 water and almond milk. I don’t add sugar to this one. I also only use 1 tsp per giant mug (about 20 oz), and steep for 10 or more minutes. This tea is heavy, so you don’t get a lot. I prefer a longer steep to get all the spicey goodness out, as well as conserve the tea.

It’s OK in water, but since the tea tastes like an amazing mix of ovaltine and coffee substitute with a splash of chai spice, I do prefer it with at least 50% milky stuff.

Compared this to Oats ‘n’ Honey this morning. I like this one more better.

http://steepster.com/OMGsrsly/posts/174048

I need more information about these teas! I’m starting to want to track locations and types, to see if I can figure out why I prefer certain teas.

Anyways. I have a whole pile of this for my mom, so I thought I’d try it for her today since it’s Mother’s Day. :D See if I can figure out why she likes this one more than the Hathikuli Estate Assam. Because I don’t get it.

Comparing to the Hathikuli, this tea has smaller leaves, some in pieces. There are less golden tips. The smell is stronger and earthier. The colour of the brewed tea is darker and redder. It’s strong and fairly thick, a chocolatey and malty, a little bitter, and verges on being quite astringent. This is a morning tea for sure. Hathikuli Estate Assam is an afternoon tea in comparison.

I much prefer an Irish or English breakfast tea in the mornings, as they seem to be blended with things that tone down the astringency and bitterness while still delivering a tea with huge morning impact.

I don’t get why my mom prefers Oats and Honey – she goes on about how she seems to prefer floral teas, and doesn’t like earthiness. So I’m confused. Maybe we’re just identifying flavours differently? IDK. It makes it really hard to pick and choose teas that she would like.

Ooh! Pleasantly surprised here. I cold steeped overnight, then heated it up in the microwave to enjoy warm.

WAY better than hot steeped. At least for me!

I did get this tea because I’ve seen a couple people be really enthusiastic about ordering it, so I know there are people out there who love it. Just not me. Good thing ShayneBear wants to try some, because getting through the 50g on my own would be a bit of a chore.

I have had this tea for a couple weeks now (at least!) and I despaired at getting it to be drinkable. The black base as well as the flavour oils are designed to give a tart, pithy grapefruit taste. Blech. I don’t like pith at all, so after trying a multitude of different methods of hot brewing it, I tossed some leaves into some cold water and put it in the fridge.

4 hours: Delicate, sweet grapefruit and black tea. Very light colour.
12 hours: Stronger sweet grapefruit and black tea with some pithy bitterness. Still a very light colour.

I enjoy it best at 4 hours, but 12 hours is still lovely with nothing added to it. Tastes like there’s white grapefruit juice added to the tea!

I’m glad I can enjoy this one cold, but wow. Hot really doesn’t work for me at all.

Ok, so this is really good.

I made some of this tea triple strong – 1.5 tbsp tea leaves in 1 cup of water, then cooled over 4 ice cubes. I then froze the tea into ice cubes. Just now I made a smoothie – 1/2 frozen banana, 200ml soy milk (or whatever, really), a little honey (not needed!) and 4 ice cubes. I forgot my protein powder (unflavoured, unsweetened), but that’s OK.

This is delicious! It would work so well with so many different teas. I might do this purely as a drink with no banana, so the tea flavour isn’t masked so much. If I don’t use a banana, I’ll use an extra ice cube.

I’m going to have to do this with chai! Mmm, chai frappa-whatsits. Homemade. Super easy and delicious. Definitely a good reason to get a cheapie blender.

Having this one iced tonight. I used 1.5 tbsp in a 16 oz tea pot, then poured it over a whole tray of ice cubes. So delicious. Definitely need to remember to leave room in my tiny freezer for 2 ice cube trays if I’m going to be icing tea a lot this summer!

Got this iced today when I dropped in to pick up more tea for my mom. Sadly, they were out so I have to (oh noes) go back on Friday.

This is a surprisingly good rooibos. It’s fruity and spicy… not quite chai, not quite citrus.

I’m not sure I’d get this one for at home, but as a non-caffeinated iced tea on the go, it’s really tasty.

Yum! A nice strong breakfast tea with soy creamer to go with my ridiculous birthday breakfast (2 eggs with Korean chili pepper, 2 gluten free toaster waffles with yogurt, Happy Planet smoothie, water… although the smoothie might come to work instead).

I’m blaming my hangry state on the fact that I forgot to eat yesterday when I went to Langley, and that when I finally did eat I ended up with a tummy ache. So far today, so good.

Anyways, the tea. Rich, malty (oh, can I ever taste that today), smooth, delicious. This is my favourite Irish Breakfast blend.

Busy studying, so I need to either drink candy flavoured things or eat candy. This round of internal arguments, tea won!

Yum. With milk and sugar, of course, to intensify the candy flavour of the tea.

So far I’ve done 2 sets of file card review, plus 3 practise exams. The mistakes I’m making are foolish algebraic nonsense. – * – = +, self! Yeesh!

Sipdown! (OH NOES! Now I need to go get more, and Steam is closed tomorrow!)

Anyways, I didn’t have enough for my travel cup so I added some Irish Breakfast. It worked! Yay! So good.

(Oh, and my tutor is impressed with how far I’ve come, and I should manage to pass the course, might even get a B if I don’t get tripped up with the simple things. Like algebra. Freaking algebra.)

Yum. I think I need to buy more of this tea.

That’s actually all I have to say. Time to get back to studying!!

Yep. Lighter in flavour, sweeter and a bit more floral than Black Manas by Teajo.

I still really like this one, but the other is more of a kick-in-the-pants morning tea for me. They both have a similar mouth-feel as far as astringency and bitterness at a 3 minute steep (which is incredibly minimal) but the Black Manas is thicker, somehow. I don’t get it.

Can you tell I was a coffee drinker? Heh. It seems like I’m looking for the strongest, non-roasty tasting black tea I can handle…

Without milk I found this to be a somewhat sweet but boring black tea. With milk it becomes a syrupy, creamy cup of goodness that wants to be besties with my pancakes. Of the five big mugs that I had over the last few days I never got past the analytical point of deciding it was delicious.

I can’t tell you all if it had nutty notes (I think it had nutty notes), or if its base was interesting or not, but I can say for sure that I drank it very fast and it was a challenge not to have a mug full on hand 24/7. I’ll be revisiting this tea in the fall, on miserable rainy days, and on lazy weekend mornings when I want, but don’t have access to, pancakes.

Thank you, OMGsrsly!

Here’s another sample from OMGsrsly. She describes the flavour very well and I’m feeling lazy, so I’ll just add that I enjoyed this one with milk despite it being fruity. It also paired well with a mango gummy.

Thank you, OMGsrsly, for this sample from our Victoria crawl! I’ve enjoyed all of the Steam teas I’ve tried so far.

Drinking this tea hot to lukewarm right now. This one as a strong juicy aroma that is reminiscent of SunRype Strawberry Kiwi juice that my roommate and I liked to put vodka in last semester. The flavour is similar although it’s not as sugary as the aroma would lead on. It’s still sweet, however, and with a little bit of puckering dryness. The overall affect reminds me of a iced fruity alcoholic drink. The name of this tea further emphasizes that association. There’s a syrupy aftertaste.

Oh, I should make a note of the base tea. It’s green, a little seaweedy, but very subtle and soft in this blend- I’m willing to gamble that it’s a sencha. Probably. I think the pieces of fruit are papaya.

I’m using the rest of this sample for a mug of iced tea tonight. Mmmm… that sounds good. I kind of want to take some of this down to Palm Desert with me. Eh, I’ll likely and up with a travel bag full of fall themed rooibos blends.